


rnt-:5. 



18%. 



thought so too ; but I was an elector for Gieeley, and, as strange as you may think it, 
many negroes then informed me that they would vote for me if running on ni}- own ac- 
count, but tbat they would not vote for Greeley. And you will permit me here to say that 
manj^ negro speakers who advocated Lynch said on the stump that the only objection they 
had to my election was that I would not be here to defend them in the courts, and they 
wou'd be sentto the penitentiar}'. This was a prominent and o!t repeated argument in 
in the district where I practice law. It may be deemed egotism in me to mention this, 
and I only do it in seli-defense against what I consider an unjust and slanderous assault 
upon me, and in the same connection I may add that after the election, when I was about 
to leave home on a boat, my negro friends and supporters with great enthusiasm drew me 
in a buggy to the landing. There was certainly no evidence of intimidation in this. I 
have been twice a candidate for State senator in this same black belt, and both times re- 
ceived a large negro vo'e, which was increased each time I have been a candidate, not- 
withstanding tke false charges which your correspondent now makes about Fort Fillow 
were occasionally hurled at me. These slanders have been so often refuted here, and 
there are so many men, white and black, in the district, who kno'v them to be false, that 
no man here who has any regard for truth would repeat them. Mr. Lynch tried it twice 
in the opening of his canvass, and lost many votes by it, so tha^, by the advise of his 
friends, he abandoned it. The truth is, the Repablican pirtyof Mississippi have indorsed 
too many men who fought at Fort Pillow to make any point on it now. Tne Repuhlicaii 
attorney I'eneral and former congressman, G. E. Harris : the last Republican candidate 
for State treasurer, G. W. Buchanan; the Republican official of Coahoma, G. R. Alcorn, 
and, moi-e especially, the Hayes and Wheeler elector of the district, T. J. Wrodson, were 
all i'u my command' at Fort Pillow, and some of them in the line shooting, while I was on 
my horse being shot at. A"-d, furthermore, these gentlemen, t'loagh all opposed to me in 
politics, will all testify that all these charges made against me, b}' men who do not even 
P'-ofess to know me, were false. They will testify that no womin or boy was ever mur- 
dered by me or by an}' one else at Fort Pillow; that there were no women or boys there when 
we took the fort; that I never had any staff officer from the second Missouri cavalr}', and 
that, so far from saying "I would not treat home-mide Yankees," meaning Tennesseans, 
"as prisoners of war," that I actnallj' did protect Major Bradford from threatened violence 
at the hands of a Tennessee Confederate. Your correspondent calls Lynch the most popu 
lar colored orator in the state, and yet he lost twelve hundred votes in his county, while 1 
"■ained five hundred in mine over the last e'ection, and at the box on my plantation I re- 
ceived every vote, white andldack, while Hayes receivf d sixty'-four and Tilden fortj' votes; 
and in Tunica county, where I am best known, my majoritj^ ov. r Lynch was five hundred 
and six'y-seven, while Hayes' majority over Tilden was eleven hundred votes. Y''our cor- 
respondent professes to doubt the existence of colored Democrats, but that there were 
many open and avowed changes among colored men is well known here, and we Demo- 
crats give them credit for an honest chanj^c of opinion. But it may be possible that the 
more intelligent and ambitious were promp'ed by self-interest to join us. It is well known 
that many negroes have held office in this district, and that they have been enabled to do 
so principallj through the kindness of Democratic friends who made their bonds. In the 
last canvass it was openly asserted that no more Democrats vrouldsign Republican bonds, 
and in a district where Democrats are almost the only men who can make official bonds, it 
is easy to perceive what a persuasive influence this would have to convert aspiring colored 
men to the Democratic party. It is all folly to say that the result was accomplished by 
the shotgun policy, or by fraud, 'i'he simple solution of the whole matter is, that mind 
and money, cultivated intellect and accumulated wealth, always have, and alwaj's will, 
control the'world. Y^our correspondent was unfortunate in his selection of this district 
for illustration. He must fix on some better excuse, or abandon his idea of throwing out 
the electoral vote of Mississippi. '^^ 

Very respectfully, 

JAS. r:^ r 



Congressman-elect Sixt 



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(24-- 



AN OPEN LETTER 

To the Nev7 York Times. 



To the Edit or of the Xcw York T'unes 



FiuARS Point, Miss. 




1S76. 



I have just seen that your colmnns have been opened to an attack on me I)}- a cirres- 
ponilent (Voin Washington signed "J. U , ' and I ask that you will extend me the same 
courlei-y for a brief reply. Admit, if you please, that his figures shoeing the relative race 
strengt'ti in this district are correct, and that flrant's msijority over (ireelej- was about. 
17,()(J0 in 1S72, and we will only see the same revulsion of opiniiiii in the South that we 
see in the North, where Hayes receives about 51)!) Oi);) less miijurity in \^~6 than Grant 
did in 1h72 The one result is not more strange than the other, unless you insist on the 
very inconsistent position for a Republican to assume, tliat the negro is incompetent to 
understand a political argument, and unmoved b}' the exposure of official corruption. 
Your correspondent neglects to stnte that in this same district, in last year's election, 
» hen the imbecility of Ames disrupted his pa-ty. the Kepuhliciin majority was reduced 
from 17,01)0 down to 7,000, as you will see by a comparison of the votes tor .State treasurer; 
and this time, starting wiih 7,()i)0 against me, I h'ive beaten Mr. Lynch about 4,000 votes, 
being a gain of 11,000, or only 1,000 morethan the gain of last year. Your correspondent 
thinks It is impossible that this could have l»een fairly done, and selects my district as a 
striking example of the int midation, fraud and illegalit}- of elections in the South. \ow, 
when you consider that I not only had all the Democrats of the district thoroughh' aroused 
and working for me, but when nearly all the leading Republicans and Hayes men — the 
men in oflice, sherilfs, clerks, and leading merchants — men who in past times expreised 
unbounded aimx over the colored voters — such men as ("ap'ain Manning, the .'■heritf. Wad- 
dell, Perkins, Irvine, O^^en and Nesbilt, of Tunica ; Harrington, Crowley, Cochrane, Bro- 
die, Wortbam, Wallers and Stafford, of Coahoma; Florey, of 13ulivar; Judge Stafford antl 
Foster, of Washington; Judge Jetlbrds, of Issaquena; (leneral Fitzgerald, of Warren; 
'Walter Kearn, late private secretary of Ames, in Jefferson; Captain Key, a Federal si>l- 
dier; (Irillin, mayor of Natchez; Foster, chancery clerk of Adams, and Noble, sheriff of 
Wilkinson, were my friends and supporters; while Governor Alcorn, my personal friend, 
voted against me, but did not work ; and when you add to this a long list of prominent 
colored men like Wood, sheriff of Adams; Davenport and Wooley, of Claiborne; Lem 
Moore. F'ields and Houston, (late president of the supervisors), of Issaquena ; J. D. Web- 
ster and Shad (chancery clerk), of Washington; Murraj' (county treasurer), Glass, Hud- 
dleston and Ben Taylor, of Bolivar; Wade, Armistead and Dr. Brown, of Coahoma; Hun- 
ter, Hall and Perkins, supervisors, and Cirter, chancery clerk, of Tunica, and a host of 
lesser lights too numerous to meniion, who supported me ; and when you are informed 
that Mr. Lynch went on'y ;o the county or principal towns, while I went with brass bands, 
processions, barbecues to every precinct, I think you will agree with me that it would 
have been strange if I had not defeated a man who was almost unaided and alone. The 
statement that there are no more negro D-inocrats than scalawag Republicans in the 
South is a great mistake. It was very ditlioult at first to induce negroes to call themselves 
Democrats. Some came to us last under the name of "Tre People's Party" and "Inde- 
pendent Republicans," and this year they'proclaim themselves Democrats. As soon as 
enough were obtained to keep each other company, and to be self protecting, we had nr 
difficulty in obtaining recruits. Your correspondent asserts that (ireeley could have ob 



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